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Got a new job (yay) starting end of January in London (nr Liverpool St). Need to find somewhere to live for myself and my fiancee. Where depends on my fiance finding a job in a hospital somewhere in London, but generally speaking, how does one even start!?

Had a quick look on rightmove this morning. Seems to be no shortage of places, but really I don't know where to start looking.

Also, have no idea about budget. A little bird told me it's a bit expensive to live in London?

1. Decide on your maximum budget and stick to it. Give us a clue of what that'd be if you don't mind sharing.
2. Are you adverse to trains - do you really only want to be on a tube line?
3. What's most important to you, location or quality and size of flat? In location think about accessibility to other parts of London, but also if you don't mind living in a slightly 'dodgy' area to have a bigger flat; possibly you'll want a smaller flat in a better area for your gf's safety?
4. If you have friends already in London, in which areas do they live?

Now is not a great time to be looking. When do you need to move by?

Advice: London deposits these days are six weeks. So expect to pay 10 weeks rent before you can move in. + estate agent's fees + possible inventory fees. Requires a fair bit of saving.

I think I had to provide six for my last move.
Also, they wouldn't allow a move into a flat costing more than 33% of your income. No idea if that is standard these days or not, but it came as a bit of a surprise to me.

So yeah, you've both got new jobs. So one of those references *may* be likely to require a guarantor too - if all managing agents are as harsh as mine were anyway. Anyone who'd been in their current job for less than 4 months had to get a UK home-owner to sign a legal agreement to pay rent in the event of a default; it was pretty harsh - they did CCJ checks on the guarantor I provided, checked car registration, criminal records, etc - then a week later this legal agreement turned up in the post as a pre-moving requirement!

As a first step, use www.tfl.gov.uk to find places that are within reasonable travel times to where you will be working, plus within reasonable travel times to where you will be going out (which might depend on where any friends already live).

Then go for a wander around in those areas, speak to people you know, or ask people on here.

That there are quite a few affordable areas within walking/cycling distance of Liverpool Street, which would save you a shedload of money & hassle commuting. Take a look at Whitechapel, Shadwell, Wapping sort of way. You'll be looking at £1k a month or more for a one-bed place for the two of you, depending on what & where.
If you'd rather be more suburban, consider south-east on the East London Line (Brockley, Honor Oak, Forest Hill) - you can walk to Liverpool Street from Shoreditch station, and the ELL is quick & comfortable.
Just keep trawling Rightmove, Findaproperty, Gumtree etc, and be prepared to view & sign quickly, as there's big competition for rented places at the moment.

We recently got a decent-sized one-bed place for less than £1k a month. Is cheaper cos it's in one of the ex-council areas, but is one minutes walk from the high street, two minutes walk from the river, and we can see Tower Bridge from the living room. And it's all very lovely & quiet & safe.

i'm living just by aldgate east station and found a reasonably cheap place (far cheaper than every other place quoted)

plus as a couple it shouldn't be impossible to find a 1 bed for less than a hundred each a week. difficult around places walking distance to liverpool street, but possible. very very very possible for less / a lot less than that in travelling distances

I don't know what your girlfriend specialises in, but there should be stuff on there.

Mirri mentions a battery of credit and reference checks, but they may be easier to avoid if you can find a private landlord rather than a letting agent. Obviously private landlords don't tend to advertise through the big lettings websites but Gumtree might be a good bet, it's how I found my flat.

As has been mentioned, there are certainly parts of inner east London that are affordable, Whitechapel, Shadwell, Wapping. I've never had a 1 bed flat, always lived in flatshares, but £1k p/m for a 1 bed flat sounds like a decent enough budget.

Also, don't ignore south London as well, somewhere within easy travelling distance of London Bridge might be a good shout if you're going Liverpool St for work.

Having had a private landlord in my last flat, anything that went wrong was an absolute ballache for him, and turned out was 'fixed' by his cowboy builder mates, which meant it all went wrong again/fell to pieces.

This particular managing agent is a breath of fresh air. I scrawled all over my inventory with faults and they said 'we're just going to send some blokes in to fix this lot,' and they did.

I had a letter from them on Friday advising opening hours over Christmas and New Year, with emergency plumbers/builders numbers on it. Almost a month before Christmas.

Was left with no electricity (including an overflowing, non-flushing toilet) when I couldn't get hold of private landlord last year. He'd pissed off on holiday.

i think my landlord owns loads of properties in London, happy to pass on details so you can see what they have available, especially if it's all managed through this really quite competent managing agency (which is a bit of a rareity).

seriously this is all good stuff. To answer various questions in a random order

1) Budget - yeah, as someone mentioned, I started off looking at about £1k pcm, though in reality between the missus and I we might be able to afford more. But really we're going to have to think about it, and it sounds like sticking to a budget is key.

2) Commuting - I'm not scare of a commute, but I've had it easy for the past few years, living 15 minutes walk away from work. Mrs berksy(-to-be) drives an hour to work, and she's insistent on not doing that ever again, so where we live is more likely to be determined by where she's working.

3) Location - following on from that, she works funny shifts meaning she comes home at all hours of the night, so I guess maybe living in a safe area would probably be a priority. Again, we've had it sweet with the place we've been living in in York - nice flat, a short walk from city centre, for relatively cheap, and York's as safe as houses. I can already tell we ain't gonna have all of that again in London for our budget, so some compromises need to be made, I accept.

4) Transport - had a quick look at tubes & buses from where I'll be working: unsurprisingly, it's pretty well connected around that area, so it would look like I could live a lot of places and get to work relatively easily.

5) Friends - they're all over the place - some in Wimbledon, some in Clapham, some in Stoke Newington. I guess the most central place to all of those would probably be Buckingham Palace; rent's probably a bit pricey, mind.

There's pros and cons to most of London. I lived SW for years. In the summer its great as there are lovely waks by the Thames, Kew, Battersea etc. But it's quite posh, precious little nightlife and full of either wealthy families or short term renters.

My mates over North love the night life, pubs etc but struggle to find enough cash to save as the rent is pricy. And the roads are gridlock.

We've just bought SE (Forest Hill) mainly as it's the only place that's not horrible where we can afford somewhere. It's pretty safe, got a fee ok pubs and cafes and 15 minutes overland to London Bridge or 25 to the city. Getting over west is a right pain mind and the service at weekends is poor.

But it's loads cheaper, near nice areas like Greenwich, Blackheath and Dulwich whilst still down to earth.

We'd spent 5 years trying to find the perfect place / area and it doesn't exist. Friends will move all over the shop and your circumstances will change.

All I'd say is try to find somewhere that's vaguely what you want at this point in your life, don't overstretch yourself (think about how much council tax is) and remember it doesn't have to be forever. London changes so much that if you change your mind in a year, move on...

I also really loved a couple of flats I had in Hither Green, which is a stone's throw from nicer places to go out in such as Greenwich and Blackheath, but is pretty suburban, green and nice. It neighbours the less desirable Lewisham - but you're going to get that ANYwhere in London, no matter how much you pay.

If you can stomach a train ride home + pretty expensive cab fares if you miss the last train (less or no night buses) then don't dismiss South London; you certainly get much more for your money, and there are some lovely nooks and crannies to live in.

Additional piece of advice: insist on a year long lease with a six month break clause. Unfortunately it means the landlord can give you notice if he decides to sell, but it also protects your rent for a year, and gives you a much-needed upper hand of only being stuck there for six months if the area/flat/landlord doesn't suit you.

I won't sign a lease without a six month break clause in London. You never know what freaks you're going to end up with on your doorstep (or, in my current case, a guitar playing twat downstairs and a monthly electricity bill of circa £120 a month, for a studio you couldn't swing a freakin' moth in).

but yes, they had me on the wrong tarrif for the first six weeks, so that's the average I paid. It's fixed now, so it's now down to about £80 a month... for a fucking tiny studio, and I mean TINY. It's an old building with no direct sunlight. I can't bear to think how much it's going to cost me come proper winter.

I got an absolute bargain, living in a band B property in Lambeth. The last council tax assessment exercise was in 1991, when my area was probably quite a bit worse and my flat would have been owned by the council / a housing association. But make sure you do a bit of research into how much council tax is in the borough you're looking, and ask the landlord / letting agent before you sign anything what the band is.

I don't know about York (it might be quite similar, I've only been there once), but in Brighton I lived in an area which was within walking distance of the city centre, work and friends' houses. I could go months without using public transport in the city. When I moved to London that was suddenly another £20/£25 a week I'd never thought about.